Hums aren’t things which you get; they get you.
—Winnie the Pooh
The early bird catches the worm was first recorded in A Collection of English Proverbs by John Ray in 1670 and again in 1678.
Why do some songs get wedged in our heads? They are called earworms. Earworms are a universal phenomenon that appears to affect men and women equally. According to researchers, about 98% of all people have gotten songs stuck in their heads at one time or another. Margaret says, “they’re very annoying when you don’t know the words”.
We’ve decided that this phenomenon of the earworm warrants further investigation. In fact, our further investigation revealed that there have been several further investigations as you will soon see.
The English word, earworm, is actually centuries old and was another name for the earwig, which got its name from the belief (fortunately, very wrong) that worms crawled into people's ears. Hence, earworm. This belief was widespread. It shows up in English over 1,000 years ago, and we know that the belief was all over the European continent by looking at other languages' names for this creature. Danish, Swedish, medieval Dutch, medieval Latin, medieval French—all of the names for the earwig in these languages refer to the ear. German, too: the earwig is called an Ohrwurm. and the image of a slinky, slimy creature oozing into your ear is the one that caught on. The term “earworm” with its contemporary connotation was coined in 1979 by the German psychiatrist Cornelius Eckert as he hummed Uptown Funk. It would be a psychiatrist, wouldn’t it? Scientists call it other names, like “stuck tune syndrome” and “musical imagery repetition.” If your earworm involves Justin Bieber, it may result in suicidal thoughts and at the very least a symptom of mental illness.
As we investigated earworms, we were surprised at how much time and money has been spent studying earworms. Ian Cross, professor of music and science at the University of Cambridge (while humming Queen’s, We Will Rock You) notes, “There’s not only the rhythmic structure, but there’s also melodic structure—the tune, the ups and downs, and the pitch that the words accompany. Put all these together, and that gives you a very powerful set of cues to remember.” Personally, I hate it when I know the melody and some lyrics to a song that’s bouncing around in my brain but cannot recall the title - like that Fleetwood Mac song a few days ago. Meanwhile, Professor Paul Barsom from the Pennsylvania State University (while humming Who Let the Dogs Out?), suggests that we tend to remember certain musical combinations more than others. The reason for this lies in several factors. According to Dr. Barsom, music that feels familiar catches our attention more. For instance, someone who grew up listening to heavy metal is unlikely to get earworms from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Being an exception to all rules identified by researchers, I take cannot explain why I can go from A Nightingale Sang in Berkely Square to Little Eva’s Keep Your Hands Off My Baby.
Earworms are sections of songs that we remember in our minds. One study (they were stuck on Bohemian Rhapsody) calls it Melodic Feature Extraction. Once they start, these music memories can repeat uncontrollably—for hours, days, even weeks at a time. Research indicates that nine out of ten people have experienced earworms that have lasted for an hour or longer. A few unfortunate souls even report having a song stuck in their heads for a year. One can only hope it didn’t involve Mariah Carey or Michael Bolton. There is even a musician known as DJ Earworm. "Usually, an earworm is a fragment of music, typically three or four bars, which go round and round and round,” Dr. Oliver Sacks said in an interview. Dr. Sacks is a neurologist and author who studies music and the brain and hums Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing while working. “This is a special form of involuntary musical imagery which is out of control and can become quite unpleasant and intrusive.” Dr. Sacks denies that one of his favorite earworms is Achy Breaky Heart.
While songwriters have learned many tricks for creating earworms, squashing them is another story. Earworm sufferers try many ways to erase an annoying melody. Some try to replace it by thinking of another song. Others sing the earworm song all the way through to its end. Others tackle a task that takes extra concentration. One study found that the harder people fight to quiet an earworm, the longer it tends to torment them.
Tell me if you can,
Why I keep thinking about you, baby?..........Tata Vega
TV and radio ads are a common source of earworms. Advertisers do their best to compose jingles or short songs they hope will turn into earworms. If they succeed, that means they have done their job to get customers to remember their restaurant, breakfast cereal, or other product. Years ago, while dropping off Margaret for work in the morning, I would occasionally try to brighten her day by singing the A&P jingle (a proud new feeling) to her as she got out of the car. I’m not sure if it worked. She would never tell me. It sure worked on me though. An 8:30 a.m. meeting had me speaking while that jingle was jingling away in my brain. My earworms are rarely from TV or Radio advertisements, although a few years ago when Under Control by Tim Meyers, from, I believe, a Cadillac commercial got stuck there, it remained until I downloaded the song.
In our essay, PEASE in Our Time (from The Man With Three Arms and Other Stories), we explore the five memory lanes of the brain, Procedural Memory, Episodic Memory, Automatic Memory, Semantic Memory, and Emotional Memory….PEASE…… Many ear worms connect to your episodic memory with which you remember where you were were or what were you doing when you heard a certain song.
The auditory cortex is where earworms create most of your mental karaoke routine. This is a part of the brain that does a lot of the processing of sounds, including music. It is also where musical memories are stored. Dr. Sacks (while humming Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off), in his book, Musicophilia suggests that earworms are largely a product of the electronic age. More than a century ago, most people had to go to parties, concert halls, or places of worship to hear music. There were no radios, stereos, personal phones or iPhone players that people could turn on and play their personal playlist. But today, people are surrounded by music wherever they go—in cars, stores, and through their headphones. Earworms have constant access to people’s minds and memories. Speaking of annoying, we imagine that many people have Hip Hop music as earworms? Makes us think of the old Little Anthony and the Imperials song…..Goin' out of my head over you
Out of my head over you out of my head day and night
Night and day and night, wrong or right
Night and day and night
Wrong or right, day or night
Everyday, every, every day………
Researchers at Dartmouth, while humming YMCA, conducted a brain scan experiment to test where the brain deals with “imagined music.” They played part of a familiar song, then interrupted it. The people being tested imagined the parts that were missing. "We found that the auditory cortex that is active when you’re actually listening to a song was reactivated when you just imagine hearing the song,” according to David Kraemer, the lead researcher while humming We Are the Champions. In other words, the auditory cortex acts as your imagination’s MP3 player. In order to get stuck in your head, earworms rely on brain networks that are involved in perception, emotion, memory, and spontaneous thought. They are typically triggered by actually hearing a song, though they may also creep up on you when you are feeling good, or when you are in a dreamy (inattentive) or nostalgic state like a summer evening at our dock when the Irish song, Wild Rover: And it's no, nay, never (clap 4 times)
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover
No never no more), bounces around in there. And they may also show up when you are stressed about having too much to think about. It’s as if your stressed-out brain latches onto a repetitive idea and sticks with it. Also, if you have a musical background, you may be more susceptible to earworms too.
Clearly, the subject of earworms fascinates brain scientists and a certain author we know who gets them jammed into the auditory context all too frequently. Of the 365 days (366) days in a year, I will wake up with an earworm on perhaps 320 of them. I know this because each morning on waking, part of my early routine includes listing that morning’s earworm bouncing around in my brain. I have a dozen pages of ear worms, 50 to a page. Yes, I know that’s another problem. I’m sure there are support groups and counseling for this. This morning it was Connie Francis’ Lipstick On Your Collar* (1959). Where did it come from? I have no idea. I may not have even thought of it or Connie in 40 years or so. I don’t know how it got there but there it was. So much for the research.
Scientists have found that people’s memory for music is incredibly powerful. And putting information to music can help us remember facts and details more easily. For example, the ABC Song sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star probably helped you learn your alphabet, n’est pas? People can remember the melody, beat, and words to a song years after they last heard it. Researchers believe that earworms tend to be songs with catchy melodies that repeat often. As the melody repeats and repeats, it gets embedded into your mind. Long after the tune stops, your brain continues to play it on repeat. This fails to explain why Patience and Prudence’ Gonna Get Along Without You Now (1957) appeared a month ago, where from? Really, no one knows Patience and Prudence. Patience and Prudence don’t even know Patience and Prudence. Somehow it was replaced the next day by Kenny Chesney’s How Forever Feels (1998). I just wonder what triggered them? I wake up and there they are. I did not dream of either Patience or Prudence or Kenny although I’d estimate that at least half of my earworms are 50s and 60s songs. It is clearly an age thing. One wonders which earworms 20 or 30 year olds experience.
Many people consider earworms to be unwelcome because they can be both annoying and distracting. If you’re trying to focus on a task, an earworm can make it hard to concentrate and accomplish what needs to be done. Certain personality features also may predispose you to being haunted by a catchy tune. If you are obsessive-compulsive, neurotic, anxious, self-conscious, and vulnerable, then there they are.
Don’t try to get rid of an earworm. There’s no sure-fire way of killing an earworm. Some people try to listen to a different song to dislodge the tune they don’t want to hear. Others take the opposite approach: they listen to the offending tune from beginning to end in an attempt to get it to go away once it has finished. Others might try a conversation or beginning some sort of new activity to divert their attention elsewhere. Recently, I wittily responded to my friend Al’s Facebook posting asking folks to name their favorite 70’s band, I jokingly responded Ohio Express. My punishment was having Yummy Yummy Yummy I”ve Got Love in My Tummy bounce around in my brain for days. Side note: during the composing of this essay, Don’t You Ever (2019), by an obscure singer named Spirit Ghost was earworming away. I first heard it being played on a soundtrack in a pet store in Fairfax, (Grateful Dead country), California. Thanks to Shazam, I looked it up as my sister, Mary, was purchasing pet items. Now it’s on my iTunes playlist and has wormed its way into my brain along with many others.
The team of researchers (while humming Pharrell Williams Happy) ………we repeat there are apparently numerous teams of researchers of earworms everywhere and so far no team member, that we know of has gone Postal………not even over Sweet Caroline? …..at St. Andrew’s University School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies overcame Meghan Trainor’s All About The Bass and developed a mathematical formula for explaining what makes an earworm. Evidently, an earworm needs five key components: surprise, predictability, rhythmic repetition, melodic potency and receptiveness (how the listener feels about the song). The formula is expressed as Receptiveness + (predictability-surprise) + (melodic potency) + (rhythmic repetition x1.5) = earworm. The most addictive earworm named was Queen’s, We Will Rock You, with the band having three songs in the Top 20 alongside Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions. Jingle Bells was the oldest song in the list. There are several earworm song list sites. This one has 100 of them - https://reads-it.com/earworms-100-songs-your-brain-can-t-forget/ although frankly, if I had Karma Chameleon stuck in my brain I might have to use a power drill in my ear.
An article in Neuroscience News.com credited to University of California Davis, written while the author was humming Living on a Prayer, postulates that research into earworms could eventually lead to the development of nonpharmaceutical, music-based interventions to help people suffering from dementia and other neurological disorders to better remember events, people and daily tasks.
In summary, Involuntary Musical Imagery (upmarket jargon for earworms) is the spontaneous recall and repeating of a tune in one’s mind. They are ephemeral. They can be attributed to a wide range of triggers, including memory associations and recent musical exposure. Often, it is your favorite song of the moment. In most cases, an earworm will eventually go away on its own. That is, until another one comes along to take its place.
*As for Connie Francis, who inspired this essay dozens of earworms ago,
We have her on a YouTube video from American Bandstand (1959) for possible earworm inclusion. Also note the intense gum-chewing audience and elaborate choreography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8x5cUFoDnU
As for the Earworms mentioned in this article?…..Go ahead. We dare you:
We Will Rock You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXGbhniTBrU
Bohemian Rhapsody - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ
Who Let the Dogs Out? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkuu0Lwb5EM
Living on a Prayer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohFtQIPqGSo
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyofs0mreCc
Keep Your Hands Off My Baby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCUNa_RIIxE
Gonna Get Along Without You Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLwU2soAB6s
How Forever Feels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMeUY6pZ9aE
Yummy Yummy Yummy I”ve Got Love in My Tummy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yijqy48mmG4
Don’t You Ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLZqPZ_tgaA
Happy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
YMCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k
Don’t Stop Believing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs
Jingle Bells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CWJNqyub3o
Four Seasons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA
Achy Breaky Heart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQIPdHMpjc
Just Keep Thinking About You Baby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RCnEiouSL0
Wild Rover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SjiSwXUgys
All About the Bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk
Under Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryzxU137DzU
ABC Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmsrB59mj8
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCjJyiqpAuU
Uptown Funk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JtL8b2t1EQ
PS – We would not inflict Karma Chameleon on anyone….ever. Same for Justin Bieber
Sources:
YouTube
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/your-brain-on-music/your-brain-on-music/your-brain-on-music-earworms/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-you-cant-get-a-song-out-of-your-head-and-what-to-do-about-it-2017100412490
American Psychological Association 2017, Vol. 11, No. 2, 122–135
https://neurosciencenews.com/earworm-memory-18731/
